Monday Sketches - Just Keep Drawing

I've officially decided that Monday Sketches will be an every-other-week segment until further notice. Life's been pretty crazy as of late, so remembering to keep at it with a weekly post is not as easy right now. 

This week, I have a few school assignments to share with you, and some personal projects that have stemmed from the fact that my Midpoint Review was not approved. 

It sucks when something you've worked hard at is (essentially) rejected, but after a couple of weeks of fretting and worrying, I think I'm starting to think a little more clearly about it. In the end, I just have to keep drawing and keep working - and I'll get there. Like Dory says in Finding Nemo: 

Just Keep Swimming!!

Image from http://blogs.disney.com/oh-my-disney/2013/06/26/the-best-dory-quotes/

Without further ado, here is the art for the week!

My next big Advertising Illustration class assignment is creating an Ad based on a genre. Being the big Jane Austen fan I am, I chose Regency Romance as my theme. I sketched out a few thumbnails, and the instructor ended up choosing number 4 as the best one to work from.

After taking some photos for reference, I managed to piece together my images to create a final sketch/tonal drawing of the image in Photoshop. I think once I start throwing in color and playing with media, this will turn out to be a really nice image. I'm thinking either watercolors or gouache would do nicely, as long as I don't focus too much on the linework. Last time I focused on line, it ended up in a not-so-great grade. No fun! 

For Interactive Illustration class, we're starting to build the environment for our character. For my fortune teller, I placed her in a run-down room filled with odds and ends to bring back the Steampunk quality to the image. Astrological signs, tarot cards, drapery and electric lights all pull everything together. Looking forward to starting to create this in Adobe Illustrator!

Butterflies are one of my favorite things in the world, and after playing some in Adobe Illustrator I decided to make a fun, light hearted image with lots of these little guys! 

Playing with media and styles here with this fashionable lady. My husband challenged me to combine a couple of art styles, and his suggestion really has helped me with understanding and coming to terms with the rejection from my Midpoint Review. His support has been invaluable this entire time, and I'm so thankful for him!

In this image, I used a reference I found on the internet and just drew. I did a lot of crosshatching and shading, and the end result was a lot of fun! I might try experimenting with it some more. 

 

One of my favorite artists is Duane Bryers, who created pin-up art of this adorable and fun-loving character, Hilda. She's a chubby, chunky ball of energy whose every illustration is colorful, sexy, and exudes confidence. It's this character that helped me with finding a voice as a Body Positive artist. In this image, I copied an image of her to get a feel for the vignette style art that's so common in Pin-Up drawings. It was a lot of fun, and I hope to do more - only with my own characters!

You can find out more about Hilda and see more of Bryer's paintings at this blog post here.

That's all for now, until next time!

Monday Sketches - Catching Up

Things have been so hectic lately, I haven't had a chance to do Monday Sketches all month! Depending on how my schedule goes in the near future, this segment might become a Monthly thing rather than Weekly.

So without further ado, here is an image post of all the stuff I've done in the past month or so, so enjoy!

Captain Marvel/Ms. Marvel is my current all-time favorite super-heroine right now! She's awesome, so I had to draw her, naturally. Ms. Marvel was specifically commissioned by a friend of mine. You can buy products with these illustrations on them at my Society6 store here.

Working on expanding the subjects of my personal advertisement projects. My Thesis Review is coming up soon, so I needed something to add to my portfolio! Took some references from the internet and sketched and rendered everything in Corel Painter 2015.

School's been keeping me busy, so here's a look at my latest project - an advertisement for Whitman's Chocolates! The first image is a couple of color studies, the first one being what I went with. The completed image was done in watercolor, pencil, and pen, then digitally enhanced. I added the slogan and the Whitman's logo to complete the Ad. 

NFYW had lots of fun and amazing things to offer! I wish I could have done some more sketches, but these definitely made me very very happy. <3 I was so happy to see plus size models walking down that catwalk for Project Runway!

In addition to fashion sketches and advertising illustrations, I also dabble with Medieval illuminations from time to time. Here's an example I did a few weeks back, based on a manuscript featuring St. Michael and the Dragon.

Being a Body Positive advocate, I felt that this older illustration of mine needed a bit of a pick-me-up! Loving the #AllSizesMatter campaign idea. I might do more of these! You can buy prints of these gals at my Society6 store here.

One of my other graduate classes is an Interactive Illustration course, where I'm developing a Dress-up Doll Game. My character is a Steampunk Fortune Teller, and boy I tell you vector illustrations are a challenge! I've been learning a lot, however, and I look forward to seeing how this project turns out. I've included the sketches, the flat colors, and the finished rendered character. 

Finally, a quick look at a sketch from a previous event I attended at LaCenterra of Cinco Ranch. Had a lot of fun!

Hope you enjoyed the return of Monday Sketches! I definitely will try to update more often with more art and illustrations! 

Until next time!

Blogger Picnic at Hermann Park - Image Post

This past Sunday a few of the Blogger groups here in Houston had a picnic gathering at Hermann Park, just outside of Miller Outdoor Theatre. It was a great time, we got to introduce ourselves and our blogs, chat, eat yummy food, and have an all around good time. The parking at Hermann Park was awful, but in the end it was a great day! 

After the picnic, I got to hang out with Shasie of Live Life in Style for a bit and had a great time just walking, talking, and taking pictures of our Outfits of the Day. Spending time with friends always makes up for less-than-perfect situations like the parking fiasco! 

Below are some of the snapshots I managed to catch of the event, and an OOTD pictures taken by Shasie. The top, jeans, and sandals are all from Torrid, and the hat is from Wet Seal. 

Until next time!

Houston Tidbits' It Girls of Instagram - Image Post

A couple weeks ago, I was able to attend the second Houston Tidbits It Girls of Instagram party of the year at the Cusp Neiman Marcus in the Galleria Houston. It was great fun featuring some of the most popular Instagram blogs here in Houston. The styles featured were a great range of eclectic, classic, and colorful styles. Each Instagram account was voted on, with the winner being announced after the fashion show. You can find the list of nominees here.

The show itself was really wonderful - with plenty of great fall fashions! The winner ended up being Alex Golden of Golden Strand Jewelry! Congrats! You can check out her beautiful Instagram feed here.

Afterwards I was able to catch up with some new friends I had met at a previous event! We chatted, mingled, and then went to the Kona Grill in the Galleria for dinner. The sushi there was divine! 

Below are the pictures I managed to capture! 

Even got a quick selfie with my friend Karla! Love my cute bicycle dress from Torrid! Definitely loved hanging out and going to Kona Grill after the party! <3

Until next time!

Monday Sketches - Plus Sized Fun

Once again, it's time for Monday Sketches! I've got some fun stuff to share with you this week, including plenty of plus-sized goodness and some progress on my latest projects for my Digital Painting graduate class!

I'm sure you recognize this image, as the in-progress painting was featured in last week's segment. Here you see it completed! All I needed to do was adjust the angle of the head, fix some of the edging and shadows on the figure and work some more on the drapes behind her. 

The final touch was giving it a title: Madame Grey. Corel Painter 2015 is a fun program - definitely will be using it for my final project in this class and in the future!

Here you see a set of thumbnails (quick sketches for a final image) for my third and final project in my Digital Painting class. I really focused in on the Plus Sized Fashion theme for this painting, and in the end I chose thumbnail 4 to work on for the final painting.

The next segment for the class was to work on color compositions, which basically means take the image you plan to paint and sketch it out in different color combinations. I varied it up between having a pink dress, a yellow dress, green and blue, with varying kinds of beach scenes. 

The final painting will be intended to be a Beach Advertisement, possibly for a particular resort or for a travelling company. Either way, the model for the image will be a plus sized woman (cuz that's what I like to draw best!)

Next up is a fun pencil sketch that I did earlier in the week - I love the whole tutu with a tied top look! Fashion bloggers have taken the tutu trend and really run with it, I adore it! I couldn't help but draw from the inspiration of other plus sized bloggers for this quirky sketch.

The next drawing is a look I grabbed from the Oscar de la Renta Resort 2016 Collection. I loved the lace and the flower trimmings so much, I had to draw it for myself! So I did, on a plus sized girl of course!

(Oscar de la Renta Photo from Style.com)

The final image for this week's segment is a look at a Plus Sized Couture outfit. It wasn't specifically from anything, I just wanted to have fun with something unique. A high necked caplet on a very ruffled dress... could be fun to make, right? Makes me almost wish I was a fashion designer rather than just an illustrator. 

That's all for this week! Tune in next week for more Monday Sketches!